N.J. lawmaker critical of medical marijuana policies

A state lawmaker and medical marijuana advocates Monday accused the Christie administration of poor oversight of the medical marijuana program and questioned whether background checks of major players were being conducted.

The reaction came after the Sunday Star-Ledger reported that a member of the medical advisory board at one of the state’s medical marijuana centers has ties to Solomon Dwek, conman and key informant in the now infamous “Jersey Sting.”

“The governor needs to do a better job backgrounding the vendors,” said Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), who co-sponsored the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. “It was his handpicked vendors.”

Donna Leusner, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Senior Services, reiterated Monday that the vetting process is ongoing.

“Centers are still looking for a location or are negotiating with local officials, which is why I have said that this is an ongoing process,” Leusner said. “An alternative treatment center has to inform the Department that it has located a site, gotten municipal approval and hired staff in order for the criminal records to be checked.”

On Sunday, the paper reported that the state health department has not actually issued permits for the alternative treatment centers, despite a March announcement that seemed to solidify the six non-profits as the state centers.

“It sounds like they’re back peddling,” Scutari said. “They went through this arduous process. These were supposed to be the centers they selected.”

Another sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), said he was surprised to see this type of “red flag” but still hopes the centers will open “sooner rather than later.”

“By all means, Gov. Christie has taken his time with making sure the program is legitimate,” he said. “That said, here’s an instance where a person they selected is now called into question.”

Ken Wolski, the executive director at the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey, said he’s disappointed and now questions what sort of backgrounding efforts have been done — if any.

“We’re quite upset. For the Department of Health to say ‘Well, we didn’t issue the permits, and we just approved the applications,’ that’s really playing a word game,” Wolski said. “Patients were very disappointed and misled by this. We’re very upset to find that no real progress has been made since March, when the Department of Health supposedly approved these alternative treatment centers.”

At Compassionate Care Centers of America Foundation, the planned marijuana clinic in Central Jersey, Monmouth County entrepreneur Kenneth Cayre was set to be a potential landlord, member of the medical advisory board and, through his foundation, a beneficiary.

But he was removed from the board last week when The Star-Ledger began asking about Cayre, whom Dwek calls “Uncle Kenny” and accuses of sharing in profits from elaborate Ponzi schemes, according to federal bankruptcy filings.

Michael Weisser, a director at the center, said he ousted Cayre from the organization following the paper’s inquiries. Weisser and his son, David, run a string of medical marijuana clinics in Colorado.

Cayre, who made a fortune with his brothers in the music and video-gaming industry, is traveling abroad and did not return attempts for comment. He has not been charged with any crime.

Attorney Yale Galanter, who represents Weisser, said he has yet to speak directly with New Jersey state officials but has reached out to them concerning the issue.

“My guys want to do the right thing,” said Galanter. “They want to donate lots of money to charitable organizations. They want to donate lots of money to hospitals. We want to do everything the right way. Everybody needs to know these programs when they’re in their infancy really go through growing pains.”

The group has learned a lesson about due diligence because of this situation, said Galanter, a prominent Miami defense attorney who gained fame by representing O.J. Simpson in the past decade.

“We never imagined we would do criminal background checks on people we put medical advisory boards,” he said. “Now there isn’t going to be a human being that Compassionate Care comes into contact with that we’re not going to do a background check on.”